Sonia sets sights on championships
The Olympic silver medallist is currently in Albuquerque where she is being treated for an achilles tendon injury by the world’s leading sports injury therapist, Gerard Hartmann.
She travelled there from Australia last week with her daughter Sophie, after an MRI scan revealed a tear on the troublesome tendon.
“I am receiving twice daily treatments from Gerard, spending an hour a day with my foot in the ice bucket and continuing to train in the swimming pool with some aqua running and some gym work afterwards.”
She said she will not be running again until she gets another MRI scan and that will be in Ireland in the near future. Nick and Ciara travelled to London yesterday and she will join them there at the weekend.
“Hopefully the results of the scan will be positive and I can get back to some light running before building up to the summer track season and the world championships in Paris,” she said.
And Paris will be a stepping stone to her goal which is a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Athens next year where she will again line up for the 5,000m.
The indications are that she will be facing basically the same field as in Sydney when she was just touched off for the gold medal in an exciting finish with Gabriela Szabo.
This year, however, she will be running more 1,500m races as she works on her speed in advance of that assignment. Her speed suffered as a result of her New York City Marathon adventure.
After winning the 3,000m at the European championships in Helsinki in 1994 she came off an Achilles tendon injury similar to the one she has at present to win the inaugural 5,000m title at the world championships in Gothenburg the following year.
She had been hoping to get off to an early start this year by competing in the world indoor championships in Birmingham and the world cross-country championships in Lausanne but she had abandon those plans.
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